100 MARIA THERESA OF AUSTRIA

made so precipitately by the whole army corps and the
cavalry of the left flank, our armies might have been
successful/'

Maria Theresa probably asked Francis's advice
before writing this letter. Undoubtedly, as she was a
very tactful woman, she had not yet mentioned her
doubts about his military efficiency to him. But her
letter to the General shows that she had begun seriously
to study strategy, for she gives him some very concrete
suggestions. She told him that the infantry, "which
included many young and inexperienced soldiers,"
must be more thoroughly trained and disciplined. She
agreed with Neipperg's request to withdraw his troops
to Glogau and Neisse, as she knew " that he could not
risk a second battle until the men had recovered " from
the strain of the battle of Mollwitz.

Obviously, however, Maria Theresa did not appreciate
the seriousness of her defeat at Mollwitz, for when, after
his victory, Frederick again asked her to hand over
Silesia and end hostilities, she refused as indignantly as
she had done before the war began.

Even had she already grasped the fact that her dis-
organised, expensive, and badly commanded army could
not possibly compete with Frederick's—or rather his
father's—magnificent troops, even had she seen clearly
that after her defeat the European balance of power
would swing round to her disadvantage, she would un-
doubtedly have remained firm. She never changed her
mind easily, and Mollwitz had made her more conscious
than ever of her duty—as she saw it—to her Habsburg
heritage.

Before Frederick became King of Prussia, Louis XV,
had called him a madman. " C'est un fou ; cet homnie-
Ici est fou/' he had said of the Crown Prince of Prussia.